A wild ride ends

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, March 29, 1998

SAN ANTONIO - It seemed like none of it would ever end - Stanford's season, its NCAA Tournament run, the game that left the Cardinal a single basket from playing for the national championship.

And then it all ended - the winningest season in school history, the wild tournament ride that almost ended in St. Louis but just couldn't and the national semifinal game against Kentucky.

Time finally expired on Stanford, though only after a stream of resurrections when all seemed to be lost and only after Arthur Lee took his refuse-to-lose thing to the limit again. It took 45 minutes of basketball, but Kentucky took an 86-85 overtime victory over the Cardinal on Saturday at the Alamodome, and then promptly sped away to the safety of Monday's national title game.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they make it back here next year," Kentucky guard Allen Edwards said of Stanford, which returns every player of consequence next season.

The Wildcats, in the championship game for the third consecutive season, will play Utah, which took out North Carolina, 65-59, to oust the last No. 1 seed remaining in a tournament that was supposed to be about the top seeds.

Still, it could have been Stanford-Utah (and don't think CBS wasn't choking on that thought), and the Cardinal clung to that realization in the wake of the school's first trip to the Final Four in 56 years.

Certainly there was anguish.

There was Peter Sauer, his 80-foot fling at the buzzer falling well short and the junior forward falling desperately, sadly to the ground. And a crowd of Cardinal-clad fans, many of them weeping, others stunned that the run was finally over. And, in the locker room afterward, as coach Mike Montgomery addressed his team and as the end began to soak in, the air was heavy with the sense of loss.

But, ultimately, there was this: Stanford, believed by just about anybody to be inferior to Kentucky - perhaps even to the Final Four - fell two points short of playing for the national championship.

"Oh man, give us five more seconds, that's all I'm asking for," said Sauer, who didn't seem significantly hampered by a knee injury he sustained Tuesday in practice.

What might have been

What might have been

Montgomery seemed to want those same extra ticks, ruminating on what might have been had there been six seconds remaining instead of 2.6 when Kentucky's Wayne Turner missed two free throws and Sauer wound up with the rebound but far too much ground to cover.

Then that thought passed, though assuredly it will come back over the days and weeks ahead, and Montgomery said what every naysayer finally realized.

"We could have won. We're as good as (Kentucky), and you know that now," he said.

And that was the recurring theme in the Stanford locker room. Every step you took, from one player to the next, from one assistant coach to the next, the message was:

"We belong."

In retrospect, there were probably too many Stanford turnovers in too brief a stretch (11 in the second half, several at crucial points) and too much Jeff Sheppard, the Kentucky guard who hit four of eight 3-pointers and finished with 27 points. It was Sheppard's 3-pointer with 1:24 remaining in overtime that ultimately proved too much for Stanford to overcome. Plus, while Stanford had its turnover trouble, the Wildcats had only two in the final 36 minutes.

The Cardinal also played a crucial part of the game trying to juggle Tim Young (10 points, seven rebounds) and Mark Madsen (11 points, 16 rebounds, two blocked shots). Both eventually fouled out, and Young's fifth came on a suspect call just 22 seconds into overtime. That detail enabled Kentucky centerNazr Mohammed to finish with 18 points, after scoring just one and playing only four minutes in the first half because of two early fouls.

Asked what he was thinking on the bench while he sat for those 16 minutes, Mohammed said, "I was thinking that one bad half doesn't mean I have to have another bad half."

One crucial play after another

One crucial play after another

Then again, Stanford's loss was hardly just about Mohammed and Sheppard. This was more a game of survival, a game in which one crucial play was topped by the next.

The Cardinal controlled the game for 30 minutes. They got another superior performance from Lee, who scored the first eight points of the game and helped Stanford build two separate 10-point leads, one in each half.

But Kentucky, as Kentucky does, put together a couple runs that proved just enough to keep it in the game.

The Wildcats took their first lead, 54-53, with 10:04 remaining in regulation. But Stanford refused to let them pull away.

"They've got a lot of courage," Montgomery said of his players. "They're not afraid to make plays and take responsibility."

The Cardinal took their final lead, 68-66, with 3:04 remaining in regulation, after Madsen completed a 3-point play. Coming out of a timeout, Sheppard made a 3-pointer to make it 69-68 Kentucky, and he followed that a minute-and-a-half later with another 3-pointer for a 72-68 Kentucky lead.

Then Madsen followed in a Lee miss to make it 72-70, and when Turner missed one of two free throws - he made only four of nine to help keep Stanford in it - Lee quickly hit a 3-pointer to tie it with 24.6 seconds remaining.

"He was something," Montgomery said of Lee, who finished with 26 points, five assists and five turnovers.

"He answered the call, he ran the club."

The tie held up after Lee forced a Turner miss with 3.1 seconds remaining and after Kris Weems' 30-foot prayer fell short.

Kentucky had Stanford wobbling several times in overtime.

Down quickly in OT

Down quickly in OT

The Wildcats scored the first five points of the extra period, but Stanford quickly recovered when Jarron Collins laid in a putback after his shot was blocked, and then Lee made three free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt.

Lee made all nine of his free-throw tries, giving him a string of 38 in a row, 35 straight in the postseason to set an NCAA Tournament record.

One of the game's pivotal moments came on Kentucky's ensuing possession, when Scott Padgett tried a slam dunk over Madsen, but the ball clanged off the back rim and bounced out of bounds. The officials ruled, in a call that looked suspect but that Madsen thought was the right one (if not goaltending), that Madsen got a piece of the dunk attempt and the ball was off him.

Sheppard then knocked down another 3-pointer. And when Collins made only one of two free throws with 1:03 remaining, the Cardinal were again in a tough spot. But Turner made just one of two free throws, and Ryan Mendez bombed in a 3-pointer to make it 83-82 with 43.6 seconds remaining.

Again Turner was fouled, but this time he made both free throws to push the lead back to 85-82, and when Stanford missed three consecutive 3-point attempts, only 15.4 seconds remained.

Stanford fouled Sheppard, who made one of two free throws to put the Cardinal in a big hole, but Sauer - who had been on the bench since 4:03 remained in regulation - bombed in a 3-pointer to keep the pressure on, and it just seemed Stanford wouldn't ever go away.

Near steal by Collins

Near steal by Collins

There was one final moment when everything almost turned around again, a moment almost like last weekend, when Lee stole a pass against Rhode Island, Madsen dunked and suddenly a six-point deficit had been erased in less than a minute.

Kentucky inbounded the ball to Padgett, who turned right into a waiting Collins, who grabbed for the ball and nearly had the steal. No foul was called, only a jump ball. The possession arrow went to Kentucky.

"I was thinking about Rhode Island, I was going for the steal at first if I could get it," Collins said. "I just tried to rip his arms off. At first I thought they called a foul. But then when I saw the jump ball call, I immediately looked at the arrow. It was just disappointing."

Kentucky finally got the ball inbounds, and Turner was fouled with 2.6 remaining. He took his misses hard, but Kentucky coach Tubby Smith told him what a lot of people had to be thinking considering Stanford's resilience.

"Coach told me that missing the second free throw was the best thing that I could have done, but I was trying to make it," Turner said.